Douglas County Museum

The checker games in the county courthouse boiler room begin here shortly after the roosters at the edge of town have greeted the sun. Men in ankle top work boots and bib overhauls amble inside past a sign that says “Do Not Spit on Floor $5 Fine.” So begins an article in the New York Times News Service reprinted in the News-Leader in 1969.

As the article continues, “That make your oil heat up?” a man asked Arthur Bishop, as four barefooted girls walk by. Bishop, who mows lawns and plows gardens replied: “Women don’t bother me no more ‘n a sucking–egg dog, no more ‘n a copperhead snake. The more you do for them, the more they expect. Why, they ain’t nothing worse than a woman that’s gone bad.”

The article ends up talking about the several carloads of teenagers circling the square: “Sometimes they is three deep,” Bishop said. “I was born here when they wasn’t no cars. Then everybody sold their plow horses and bought tractors. Now the youngin’s say gas costs too much for tractors, but it’s just right for the cars. So they is no farming going on like they used to be. They is just cars going in all directions. Sometimes they is three deep.”

Come by the Museum on Saturdays from 10-2 and read more stories like this one or for a tour to see our ‘stuff’.